During the performance an ear-splittingly loud tape loop of electronic sound was played in a relatively small room. Audience members began to complain about their suffering at the hands of electronica, fearing permanent hearing damage due to the piece’s volume.

One audience member stood up and delivered the time-honoured sarcastic, slow handclap. Another screamed “stop! STOP!” whilst one other pompously announced:

“This is a DESECRATION! I am a REAL violist and I can tell you THIS IS NOT MUSIC!”.

Other audience members remonstrated with these demonstrators. Cacophony ensued, beyond that being emitted by the amps.

Facing increasing hostility, Mr Eichenseer, who has also recorded under the newly ironic name ‘delicate ear’, allegedly flung down his instrument and fled the scene. Sadly, his viola, the innocent victim in all of this, was severely damaged and, even more sadly, was unplayed in throughout whole debacle.

Now THAT’S what I call a happening.

The classical/experimental world has since seen a lot of hand-wringing and sermonizing about the whole event, now being referred to as ‘violagate’ and churning up those latent, old discussions about contemporary classical music not really being music at all, etc, etc, etc.

The Angry Violist has all growed up and gone from A6 size to A5 sized (i.e. it is now half sized, all you Americanos, or 21×14.7cm to all you very precise people) and is 24 pages long including covers.

It contains 6815 words and costs £1.50

On the inside:

— an interview with Raincoats violinist, Vicki Aspinall
— a guide to string playing in Krautrock
— the amazing Krautrock Krautmap (as mentioned in this post)
— an appreciation of violists
— punk versus folk: which four letter word will win? A look at the similarities between the genres
— how to make your playing sound grubby and super-scuzzy

If you would like to stock, trade or buy this zine – email me at angry.violist@yahoo.com for details.